Some satellite systems use scheduling techniques that are directed to specific goals of the satellite systems and that produce impacts on their operations. For example, satellite systems often use, for transmit packet scheduling on radio communications links, standard quality of service (QoS) metrics as it would be performed terrestrially to minimize communications link latency for certain packets that are transmitted in real-time. For spatial scheduling, handoff systems are often used to maintain communications link coverage for mobile ground stations among multiple radio communication satellites in a practical way to maintain connectivity.